13th Aspendos International Opera and Ballet Festival: Verdi, 'Aida', Soloists, Ankara State Opera Chorus and Orchestra/ Dario Lucantoni (conductor) Aspendos, Turkey 10.06 - 22.07.2006 (BM)

 

 

Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida is a pageant and thus a popular festival opera. It traditionally draws crowds at the famous Arena di Verona in Italy, and also provided this season’s dazzling launch of the annual Aspendos International Opera and Ballet Festival. The 2000-year-old Hellenic theater offered a splendid setting for director Vincenzo Grisostomi Travaglini’s conventional but nonetheless noteworthy staging of this lavish production, (complete with horses on stage!) showing off the joint efforts of Ankara State Opera’s Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet.

The huge cast appeared in eye-catching costumes by Savaş Camgöz, contrasting the Egyptians’ blue and gold make-up with the red garments chosen for the Ethiopians, which the audience could even scrutinize up close during intermission, when chorus members and extras mingled with the crowd in front of the theater, one of the appealing things about this laid-back venue. I was a bit taken aback at first to see spectators eating and drinking, and even lighting up (!) inside the theater during intervals, not to mention the hundreds of flashing cameras during the impressive ensemble scenes. Ultimately, however, all of this contributed to the charm of this unique setting, and those who arrived early were even treated to the sight of the chorus and corps de ballet warming up center stage - the latter with one of the most visually conspicuous pianists I have ever seen, throwing her hands up so far you thought they could never possibly come down on the right keys.

 

But the most important thing about any opera performance is the music, and thanks to the excellent acoustics of this location and the exceptional musicians involved, the music was marvelous. The cast I heard on June 12 included distinguished soloists: Radames was sung by Bulgarian tenor Zvetan Michailov, a regular at the Salzburg and Verona festivals, whose strident voice projected effortlessly to the very highest rows in the theater, but who would have done well to remember some of the pianissimo indications in Verdi’s score, especially when going for the high b-flat in his opening aria – which he reached, but at full throttle. He reminded me of the great Christa Ludwig’s comment to a student in one of her master classes: “higher shouldn’t necessarily mean louder: remember to fasten your seat belt before take-off!”

Russian mezzo-soprano Anna Chubuchenko, currently under contract at Izmir State Opera, sang an elegant and accurate Amneris, though her presence on the stage was somewhat less lithe than her voice. The star of the evening, however, was undeniably Raffaella Angeletti as Aida, her supple, exquisite soprano and impeccable diction doing full justice to the title role, equally capable of conveying emotional outbreaks and subdued, gentle passages. She will be performing the same part at the Macerata Festival in Italy this summer, and putting her and her colleagues in the B-cast, second to an almost all-Turkish cast for the premiere on June 10, is a reflection of the tradition in Turkey introduced by legendary Luciano Pavarotti. At the archives of Ankara State Opera, his name can be found in several second or third casts, e.g. of La Bohème, in which he appeared following Turkish tenors in the same role.

At present there are two Italian musicians associated with the opera house in Ankara, the young chorus master Alessandro Cedrone, whose singers were superbly coordinated, never missing a beat, and Dario Lucantoni, Ankara’s passionate new head conductor, recently recruited to Turkey’s capital with the support of the city’s Italian Culture Institute. Just how inspiring his enthusiasm is for his musicians became evident in their rendition of this multicolored and magnificent music. It is associated by most people with trumpet fanfares, but it also relies heavily on the woodwinds and harps, not to mention the dexterity required of the violin section in the Nile scene, where they create an incomparable atmosphere by playing a single G-tone up and down over four octaves, thus imitating the sound of water. Under this maestro, the effect was to create an atmosphere of sheer timelessness.

This score of course was Verdi’s first experiment with exotic, oriental elements - and he notoriously failed to have the opera premiered at the Cairo Opera House, inaugurated in 1869 on the occasion of the opening of the Suez Canal, because the stage decorations especially crafted in Paris could not be sent to Egypt due to the Franco-German war. Instead, Cairo opened with Rigoletto – one of many other operas that Ankara would be lucky to have Lucantoni conduct!

 

If you have missed Aida, never fear, it will be on the bill again in future, and there are still many coming attractions - including a contribution from the UK - to watch out for in Aspendos in July: Verdi’s Otello on July 11^th, an excellent new production (I saw the premiere in March) conducted by Istanbul State Opera’s own new Italian Artistic Director, Fabrizio Ventura, the Royal Ballet Company with Massenet’s Manon, and Bizet’s Carmen on July 18^th, staged by nearby Antalya State Opera. The Festival closes on July 22^nd with Orff’s Carmina Burana from the same city’s Opera and Ballet Company.

 

Tired of vying for expensive seats and overpriced accommodation in Verona and elsewhere?  You’d do well to give Aspendos a try – just make sure to steer clear of the “all-inclusive” tour hotels, where guests are nowadays tagged with a plastic strip reminiscent of a hospital bracelet as soon as they check-in. There’s plenty of pleasant accommodation to be found in near-by Antalya.

 

 

Bettina Mara


(with special thanks to Jonathan Markel for helping with translations from Turkish.)